"The level of adjustment of Croatian legislation to the European Union's acquis communautaire in this chapter is relatively high," the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, said.
"Judging by the existing legislation in this area, Croatia is a leading country in Southeast Europe," she said, noting that Croatia had adopted its first copyright law back in 1884.
The minister said that the European Union had set no benchmarks for Croatia in this negotiating chapter, and that in its negotiating positions, sent to Brussels on October 18, Croatia had not requested any exemptions or transitional periods for adjustment to European standards in this area.
Grabar-Kitarovic said that Croatia must still work on developing institutional and administrative frameworks for the implementation of laws and on raising public awareness of the need to protect intellectual property.
In 2003 Croatia thoroughly reformed its legislation relating to intellectual property by adopting laws on the copyright and other related rights. The same year it also reformed the legislative framework for industrial property rights by enacting a series of new laws, such as those on patents, industrial design and designations of geographic origin.
The National Forum on Accession to the European Union was launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration in an effort to better inform the Croatian public about Croatia's progress to EU membership and to encourage a public debate on the subject.